Statue of a woman wearing a mantle, restored as Flora

Roman art

This sculpture, which was probably originally a portrait statue, depicts a woman wearing a long chiton and mantle. The work was restored in the nineteenth century as a Flora by adding a non-ancient head. The drapery is similar in many ways to that of late-Classical and early Hellenistic sculpture, suggesting that the statue was probably made in Asia Minor, where comparable works were carved.

Listed among the objects that came from Frascati, it is not possible to establish whether it was found during excavations at Vigna Lucidi or Cocciano or if it was among the works that had already been brought to the Villa Mondragone.

Object details

Commentary

This statue was noted by Gozzani (the Borghese administrator in charge of installing the family’s collection after the sale of antiquities to Napoleon Bonaparte) among the objects that came from Frascati. It is not possible to establish whether it was found during excavations at Vigna Lucidi or Cocciano or if it was among the works that had already been brought to the Villa Mondragone. In 1827, it was restored by Francesco Massimiliano Laboureur as a Flora.

The statue portrays a woman wearing a mantle and standing with her weight on her left leg, while her right leg is slightly bent and moved back and to the side. The torso is slightly tilted by the equilibrium of the figure, with the left hip a bit higher than the right one. The figure is wearing a long chiton beneath a himation. Her tunic, with a wide, rounded neckline, comes down to the ground, revealing only her toes. The garment’s heavy pleats follow the movement of the figure’s legs. The generous himation envelopes the woman’s body and her right arm, gathering to form a wide wedge shape over her chest. Her left arm hangs down along her side and she holds a bouquet of flowers, added during the nineteenth-century restoration. The addition of the bouquet and the non-ancient head transformed the figure, which was originally a portrait statue, into a Flora. The drapery is similar in many ways to that of late-Classical and early Hellenistic sculpture, suggesting that the statue was probably made in Asia Minor. The gesture of the right hand and the arrangement of the mantle are similar to those of a figure in a Hellenistic group from Torbali, in Izmir, which was found near Ephesus and has been interpreted by some scholars as Helen and Peitho (Persuasion) (inv. 4741), and a few variants of that work, such as one from the Ephesus Gymnasium in Izmir (inv. 649), one from Perge in Antalya (inv. A 3180) and a portrait head of Faustina the Elder in the Ince Blundell Hall Collection (Linfert 1976, pp. 52–57).

Many examples of Hellenistic draped female figures are known, with variations in the drapery and clothing, produced for honorary and commemorative or funerary purposes. The function of the sculptures carved in the Roman world was mainly funerary. In the present case, the handling of the drapery suggests a date in the Antonine period.

Jessica Clementi